


Between the Cracks

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Series: Cracks 'verse - All [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark fic, Estraneo being Estraneo, Gen, Heavy on the Comfort; Light on the Hurt, Implied/Referenced Child Trafficking, Implied/Referenced Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, POV Estraneo (Reborn)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-10-31 09:53:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10896882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: A while back, I was gifted a truly evil little plot bunny that I've since been quietly feeding."Basically, flame user child trafficking ring makes the worst mistake in their entire lives here. Tsuna meets his guardians very early in the worst situation of their lives. Vongola, once they find out, has to figure out what to do with a bunch of terrified, powerful, feral, tortured children who really don't trust adults and are NOT going to be separated tyvm."





	1. Abduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saj_te_Gyuhyall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saj_te_Gyuhyall/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Aoife_Prompt_Collection_KHR](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Aoife_Prompt_Collection_KHR) collection. 



The first indication that there's something amiss, that someone might be breaking the rules, would have been the reduction in the number of street kids on the island. Except no-one did notice.

With Mammon under house arrest after the Cradle Affair and Lal Mirch helping clean up the mess from that, and Reborn and Fon both teaching and Skull and Verde both currently in hiding, there was only one Arcobaleno on the island- and he was too busy to notice. And too used to a comfortable life to ‘look’ for the lost.

The numbers of street kids on the Island fluctuated, anyway; even if the reduction'd been noticed, it could have been put down to the weather getting colder, earlier that year. The numbers still ended up on Iemitsu Sawada's desk, as they always did, and there they stayed, Lal Mirch too distracted by the aftermath of the Cradle Affair and cleaning up after Xanxus's tantrum to make Iemitsu do his paperwork. By the time he gets to it, it's too late.

It took six months for them to ‘use up’ the probably Latent children they had managed to source. But those six months give them a lot of useful data. They make two essential break throughs that give one of the underbosses an _idea_. A reliable way of telling what someone’s Flames would be was priceless - but what was more priceless was even an unreliable way to force them _Active_. The larger Families hoarded their Flame Actives and wielded them  _ruthlessly_ against the smaller ones. 

Of course, not all the kids survived with Flames or minds intact, but they were working on that, and it wasn’t like breaking four or five street brats for every one they brought online successfully mattered that much. Not when even a Lightning child went for a _fortune_ , and they could sell the broken ones to the right buyers - who preferred them, as they didn’t fight back. It was a shame when the first Sky they found didn’t survive, but they were improving their techniques.

(Amongst the children stolen the earliest, who joined the children from within the Familiga in the pool for experiments, was a very slight six year old with silver hair, and silver eyes. He, and one of their own, a boy with purple hair and heterochromatic eyes were the only two to survive the earliest experiments. They weren’t saleable; too damaged, too hard to control, but that just made them useful in a different way - making the new brats watch as they were experimented on made the new subjects easier to control, and it was always useful to have control samples to hand.)

Especially once they started working their way through ‘properly’ civvy brats with no exposure to the Mafia. They had so little resistance to proper motivational techniques that it made bringing them Active easy. A little brainwashing, a little trauma, a near death experience or three - though it was best to have other Flame Users induce those; they’d lost at least two scientists to violent Activations amongst the earlier batches. The smaller Families that had bought from them were spreading the word quietly amongst themselves; their merchandise was good, the kids strong and malleable. But there was a definite demand for Skies and Clouds, which were damn hard to find.

No matter. With that much money at stake, sending members of the Family out with the new technology to sweep through major countries hunting brats was entirely worthwhile. A private jet at a small airfield and picking up half a dozen with potentially strong Flames (of which one or two might end up Active and intact) was more than profitable; it was like a license to print money.

The newest batch of course; well it would be a shame if any of them broke. They’d been found in Japan, in one of the quieter prefectures by a subordinate who’d been on a day off of all things - he’d hit pay dirt, and would be getting a percentage of the sales and his choice of any of the broken ones to keep. There had even been two Clouds and a Sky, though all three had been a nightmare to grab; the scientists would have a field day with two of them, as the equipment said Latent, but their actions said Active. They’d gotten an almost complete Set, though there some duplication, including two Clouds rather than a Mist and a Storm. Not that anyone would object to _two_ Clouds at all; bastards were almost as rare as Skys. (They did actually pick up a Mist on the way back to the airstrip; ran her over, which was just ridiculous, but brought her with them _anyway_. Leaving a half-dead body behind was careless.)

The fact that the brats knew each other would just make them easier to ~~break~~ Activate.


	2. Active

Keeping the brats together was a mistake, in hindsight. It had always worked to their advantage before, but that was without the addition of a Sky to the group. Or rather the addition of that particular Sky, to that particular group.

They had started with the two Lightnings; two of the girls, the least valuable Flame Users and even for boys at this age, the most psychologically damaging for the rest to watch be forced "Active". Especially given that one of them was sister to the semi-Active Sun. (The other two girls in the group, well the Cloud was too valuable and the Mist seemed to have been brought Active by that little accident that had put her in their hands in the first place. Even if she hadn't, she had a fair amount of healing to do.)

It didn't take very long for their resident Mist to figure out the girls' fears, and setting them up in the observation chamber took even less time; water boarding for the Sun's sister, which was a nice visual technique. Might even manage to bring her brother online with that. And for the other Lightning, rather appropriately, there would be electrocution. Not as nicely a visual technique, but very effective.

It does bring the semi-Active Sun the rest of the way Active; they have to gag and restrain him before they can finish the girls off. Not that it's an issue - it means they can throw him back in to take care of the girls. Which would help focus him on healing, making him _far_ more valuble. The Sky looks sick, and crawls over to cradle the two girls' heads in his lap; interestingly his eyes glowing orange, just a little, suggesting he was indeed on the edge of being Active - whilst the two Clouds both prowl around the edges of the space they're in; the female Cloud now as close to activating as the male.

(The presence of the Sun would probably help mitigate the complications; hopefully they wouldn't have to deal with pneumonia or peripheral neuropathy with either of those two.)

With three of the room's occupants "Active", and several more of them teetering on the edge, they start taking more precautions; tasers and flame suppressants to move them.

The two Rains are the ones they go after next - the one captured with the male Cloud, fears being buried alive, and the other Rain, the one they collected from the baseball match is a second waterboarding. They both hold out a ridiculously long time, and there is a genuine concern that they will break the pair of them - which would be a shame; neither would be particularly valuable to their other market, but on the other hand, both Clouds are driven to prowl, to Rage whilst they wait for the boys to break or go Active.

The second Sun fears his own body betraying him, and they use that. A slow, binary poison means that he folds in place, stabbing pains in his stomach. The Sky glares at the cameras, and that in combination with the two prowling Clouds - there is an overwhelming burst of Energy, and the base goes _dark_.

The darkness is all pervading; there is an overwhelming lassitude from the Rains going Active. The generators refuse to start, and there's creepy laughter and then, the screams start.

(The Namimori children have been in their hands for just over three weeks.)


	3. Escape

The two Rains really were extraordinarily strong; if they could restrain them they would go for an excellent price despite they're comparatively common Flames. Though it was possible that the two Clouds had gone Active, as well, and were amplifying the effects. It makes moving feel like one is trying to wade through treacle. All the sounds, including the laughter from the Mist-Experiment are oddly distorted and muted, like listening to the world through water.

They have protocols for one of the pieces of merchandise or the experiments escaping. Or even two or three, but the messages from the men responsible for keeping the generators running still sound panicked, even through the audio distortion the Rain Flames are creating; they know that power is a necessity to keep the Demon and the Hurricane contained, but the generators _won't start_.

The radios go silent in sequence; a rippling quietness that oscillates out from where the two experiments are bring held; which is a problem, given that the merchandise with the Sky are also potentially on the loose. There were protocols to deal with this situation. It would be a shame to lose any of them; they were so close to inducing Sky-Flames in the Hurricane, and the Sky and the two Clouds in the other group were worth a small fortune. But they could start over.

The laughter continued to carry through the compound, the Demon amplifying it deliberately with his Mist Flames, and their own Mist was off the base, so there was nothing that could be done about it - it was like the Demon's Flames; insidious. In a lot of ways it was even _more_ worrying when the laughter went _quiet_. Especially as the circle of silence was still widening. It meant that something - possibly the Sky - had attracted the Mist's attention.

The protocols would work. They _had_ to work.

The Lightning they have on site _tries_ ; gets a last message to control. The Demon and the Hurricane were with the Sky - and the Sky was Active. The message cuts off half way through and they pull everyone else out of the way; they'd have to recapture the group later, but the least wasteful option would be to get out of their way for now. Let them exhaust themselves getting out.

They lose at least two more observers as the group carves their way up and out; it earns them the knowledge that all of the brats were Active - and four were in _bad_ shape, which only made the decision to allow them to escape easier; there was no way they were going to get far fast. 

There was no warning. Or rather, the only person who noticed, dismissed the warning sign. The base was built for the earthquakes that sometimes happened in this part of Italy. The faint shaking was far less important that keeping a careful eye on the escapees. It does means that no one evacuates. 

No one escapes the roaring Sky Flames that transform _everything_ into soft soil like that which the 'former' base was burrowed into. It is a slow and _painful_ death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Between the Cracks ends here; the POV 'character' is dead. The story carries on in the other sections ...

**Author's Note:**

> So. For reference, the Estraneo have Mukuro and Hayato from basically the beginning, and have just picked up Tsuna, Kyoya, Takeshi, Ryohei, Kyoko, Hana, Haru, Shoichi and Kuskabe ... and poor Chrome by running her over.
> 
> Chikusa and Ken have been sold and are 'gone'; Spanner is waiting to be collected by a buyer.
> 
> The youngest of the group is five, Tsuna is as yet unSealed, and the oldest is Kyoya at eight.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Crack in the Mask](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10905396) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [With Composure Uncracked](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10911813) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [A Crack of the Whip](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10921323) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [With Cracked Pacifier](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10938657) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [Step on a Crack](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10955190) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)
  * [A Crack of Lightning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11244774) by [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare)




End file.
